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Ken Coomer
Wilco Calls Area Code 615 For the past five
years Wilco has been the ideal forum for Ken Coomer's
experimentation.
Within the band's swirling mix, which touches on The Beatles, Hank
Williams, and many points
between, Coomer's ability to play just what's
required - and always make it unique - is what sets him
apart.
Take "She's A Jar" from Wilco's latest album, Summer Teeth.
Coomer enhances the laid-back feel
with an odd, boomy bass drum.
"That's a 16" floor tom laying on its side," Ken explains. "I barely
tapped it with an old
Ludwig & Ludwig felt beater." Coomer insists
that anything goes on Wilco albums: sticks, brushes - even chopsticks.
(At
a Chinese restaurant recently, Ken dropped thirty bucks on four
hundred pair.)
It's the small details that make
Coomer's playing so
interesting. This fact is verified by drummer Charlie Cooley, who
joined the Canadian band Prairie
Oyster after Coomer had recorded their
latest CD. Says Charlie, "They flew Ken up from Nashville to do the
record, and I had
to learn his parts, which were deceiving. In certain
places, instead of just riding on the floor tom, Ken played these slick
ruffs
and drags between the main beats."
Coomer's left-field style can also be heard on a new release
by Swag,
featuring members of Cheap Trick and The Mavericks. He's also
on the latest album by ex-Crowded House
singer/songwriter Tim Finn.
"There's the pop thing people would expect," Ken explains, "plus a Neil
Young sort of thing
that sounds like an outtake from After The Gold
Rush."
Strange as it seems, given the gigs he's known for today,
maybe
Coomer's unusual style is in part the result of his tenure in...a
fusion band" "I really did play in one!" he laughs.
"We had all these
time signatures that would change on a dime." These days, Coomer
couldn't be bothered with such
clutter. Don't think, he advises; just
play: "Sometimes I'll ask myself, 'Didn't I do that same fill
three
songs earlier?"; In the studio, we call that "The thinking man's take,'
and that's never the one we
choose. It could be dead on, but it's never
the one with heart, soul, and feel."
Despite his emphasis on feel
versus complexity, Coomer admits
he's still "a drum geek," though these days that's exhibited in his
affection for
old drums. Well-known in vintage circles, Ken
incorporates classic snare drums into his Slingerland/Paiste
setup'that
would be Paiste Traditionals, of course!
Ken says the secret is to always have fun behind the kit,
even
if you're recording a jingle. "I did this thing for Kelly Tires," he
recalls. "It was 29.3 seconds. I overdubbed a crash
when an actor's
hand fell on the steering wheel. I only get called when they want weird
stuff. But that's okay. All I
want to do is left-of-center stuff
anyway."
T. Bruce Wittet
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